The Determinants of Export Performance of Firms in Selected MENA Countries: Comparison with CEE Countries, Israel and Turkey

Variable	Description
export (export status)	Dependent binary variable, which takes the value of 1 if the establishment is exporting (directly or indirectly) at least 1% of its sales, and 0 otherwise

Iprod (level of productivity)	Logarithm of productivity expressed as the total amount of annual sales per full-time employee

age (age of firm)	Number of years since the start of operation

R_D (R&D status)	Binary variable, which takes value of 1 if the establishment was spending money on R&D in the last three years, and 0 otherwise

luni (% of university graduates) Isize	Logarithm for the percentage of employees at the end of the fiscal year with a university degree

lsize (number of employees)	Logarithm for the number of permanent, full-time employees in this firm at the end of the last fiscal year

fo (foreign ownership status)	Binary variable, which takes the value of 1 if its shares are owned by private foreign individuals, companies or organizations, and 0 otherwise

foIicences (foreign ownership status)	Binary variable, which takes the value of 1 if the establishment uses technology licensed from a foreign-owned company, and 0 otherwise

multi1 (multi-products measure)	100 minus the share of the main product in total sales. This variable measures whether the firm is producing many (multiple) products (0 means that the main product represents 100% of supply)

share_gov (percent of state ownership)	The percentage of a firm owned by the state/government

corruption (perception of corruption)	Corruption: its perception as an obstacle to current operations of the establishment (0 stands for no obstacles and 4 for a very serious obstacle)

Source: BEEPS data set.

1 The role of product mix for exporters is analysed by Mayer, Melitz and Ottaviano (2014). This variable is only used in the robustness test in the Appendix.

Tab. 2

Summary statistics for variables used in the empirical study for the whole sample of 22,449 observations

Variable	Observations	Mean	Std. dev.	Min.	Max.
age	22,220	16.261	13.591	0	190
R_D	22,260	0.109	0.312	0	1
uni	21,271	32.908	30.903	0	100
size	22,274	76.287	338.188	1	21,000
fo	22,449	0.085	0.279	0	1
folicences	22,220	0.131	0.337	0	1
share_gov	22,181	0.766	7.115	0	99
corruption	21,588	1.456	1.508	0	4

Source: BEEPS data set.

Tab. 3

Results of probit estimations for the entire sample of countries, MENA countries and all CEE countries

	All countries			MENA-8			All CEE

VARIABLES	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)
Iprod	-0.012***	0.0414***	0.070***	0.049***	0.044***	0.053	-0.025***	0.039***	0.091***
	(0.004)	(0.009)	(0.020)	(0.007)	(0.013)	(0.037)	(0.006)	(0.012)	(0.021)
age	0.007***	0.002**	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.003	0.008***	0.001	0.000
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
R_D	0.599***	0.492***	0.439***	0.631***	0.502***	0.509***	0.620***	0.508***	0.415***
	(0.033)	(0.035)	(0.057)	(0.058)	(0.060)	(0.147)	(0.042)	(0.045)	(0.049)
luni	-0.027***	0.021***	0.031***	-0.006	0.024***	0.032***	-0.044***	0.017**	0.030***
	(0.005)	(0.005)	(0.006)	(0.007)	(0.008)	(0.009)	(0.006)	(0.007)	(0.009)
Isize	0.253***	0.286***	0.265***	0.308***	0.333***	0.306***	0.203***	0.255***	0.242***
	(0.009)	(0.010)	(0.025)	(0.015)	(0.016)	(0.040)	(0.013)	(0.014)	(0.025)
fo	0.596***	0.495***	0.469***	0.452***	0.487***	0.476***	0.707***	0.509***	0.466***
	(0.040)	(0.043)	(0.065)	(0.070)	(0.074)	(0.150)	(0.051)	(0.054)	(0.057)
folicences	0.330***	0.267***	0.250***	0.431***	0.245***	0.244	0.316***	0.285***	0.258***
	(0.033)	(0.035)	(0.062)	(0.060)	(0.063)	(0.161)	(0.041)	(0.043)	(0.057)
share_gov	-0.007***	-0.005**	-0.004**	-0.006	-0.005	-0.004	-0.005**	-0.004*	-0.003
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.004)	(0.004)	(0.003)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)
corruption	-0.008	0.012	0.018*	-0.043***	0.019	0.016	-0.005	0.010	0.021
	(0.008)	(0.009)	(0.011)	(0.012)	(0.014)	(0.010)	(0.011)	(0.012)	(0.016)
Constant	-1.582***	-2.270***	-2.474***	-2.217***	-2.451***	-2.419***	-1.333***	-2.483***	-2.593***
	(0.066)	(0.133)	(0.279)	(0.108)	(0.185)	(0.561)	(0.088)	(0.203)	(0.238)
Country effects	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Sectoral effects	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Observations	16,113	16,113	16,113	5,453	5,453	5,453	10,237	10,237	10,237
Log likelihood	-7846	-7078	-6730	-2925	-2682	-2617	-4605	-4223	-3924
Pseudo R²	0.126	0.211	0.250	0.151	0.221	0.240	0.115	0.189	0.246

Robust standard errors in parentheses,

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

* p<0.1

*** p<0.01

Tab. 4

Results of probit estimations for CEE members of the EU, CEE non-members of the EU and for six MENA countries (Turkey and Israel excluded)

CEE EU members			CEE non-EU members			Six MENA countries

VARIABLES	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)
lprod	0.009	0.027	0.088***	-0.004	0.045***	0.089***	0.074***	0.055***	0.074*
	(0.013)	(0.021)	(0.027)	(0.007)	(0.015)	(0.028)	(0.008)	(0.017)	(0.044)
age	-0.002	-0.003	-0.004	0.009***	0.003*	0.002*	0.001	0.000	0.001
	(0.002)	(0.003)	(0.004)	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.002)
R_D	0.607***	0.561***	0.444***	0.588***	0.484***	0.406***	0.601***	0.456***	0.450***
	(0.078)	(0.080)	(0.113)	(0.051)	(0.054)	(0.060)	(0.068)	(0.071)	(0.070)
luni	0.011	0.020*	0.034***	-0.052	0.017*	0.030**	0.002	0.012	0.026**
	(0.010)	(0.010)	(0.010)	(0.008)	(0.010)	(0.014)	(0.009)	(0.010)	(0.013)
lsize	0.237***	0.248	0.234***	0.204***	0.258***	0.247***	0.304***	0.342***	0.321***
	(0.024)	(0.025)	(0.027)	(0.015)	(0.016)	(0.034)	(0.017)	(0.018)	(0.043)
fo	0.579***	0.550***	0.512***	0.640***	0.482***	0.445***	0.435***	0.378***	0.347***
	(0.087)	(0.088)	(0.074)	(0.064)	(0.068)	(0.079)	(0.076)	(0.079)	(0.128)
folicences	0.173**	0.180**	0.116	0.359***	0.325***	0.303***	0.363***	0.380***	0.411***
	(0.076)	(0.078)	(0.081)	(0.049)	(0.052)	(0.073)	(0.078)	(0.079)	(0.159)
share_gov	-0.016**	-0.014**	-0.016**	-0.003	-0.002	-0.002	-0.007	-0.007	-0.006***
	(0.007)	(0.007)	(0.007)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.004)	(0.004)	(0.002)
corruption	-0.054***	-0.022	-0.012	0.020	0.022	0.032*	-0.028*	0.010	0.013
	(0.020)	(0.022)	(0.016)	(0.013)	(0.014)	(0.019)	(0.015)	(0.016)	(0.013)
Constant	-1.354***	-1.851***	-2.160***	-1.753***	-2.610***	-2.648***	-2.625***	-2.533***	-2.695***
	(0.169)	(0.277)	(0.307)	(0.110)	(0.241)	(0.325)	(0.124)	(0.222)	(0.727)
Country effects	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Sectoral effects	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Observations	2,472	2,472	2,472	7,765	7,765	7,765	4,277	4,277	4,277
Log likelihood	-1404	-1371	-1161	-3083	-2845	-2721	-2171	-2033	-1974
Pseudo R²	0.107	0.128	0.261	0.116	0.184	0.220	0.153	0.206	0.230

Robust standard errors in parentheses,

*** p<0.01,

* p<0.01,

*** p<0.01,

* p<0.01,

*** p<0.01,

* p<0.01,

*** p<0.01,

* p<0.01,

** p<0.05,

*** p<0.01,

** p<0.05,

*** p<0.01,

** p<0.05,

*** p<0.01,

* p<0.01,

*** p<0.01,

Tab. 5

Results of probit estimations for individual MENA countries

	Egypt		Turkey		Israel		Tunisia		Morocco

VARIABLES	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Iprod	0.144***	0.158***	0.021	0.0212	0.140	0.139	-0.089*	-0.009	-0.090	-0.059
	(0.026)	(0.027)	(0.025)	(0.0254)	(0.088)	(0.091)	(0.049)	(0.055)	(0.055)	(0.058)
age	0.003	0.006**	0.013***	0.0104**	0.013***	0.014***	-0.009**	-0.008**	-0.003	-0.000
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.004)	(0.00454)	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.004)	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.005)
R_D	0.512***	0.539***	0.037	0.0205	1.793***	1.807***	0.699***	0.653***	0.023	0.135
	(0.131)	(0.138)	(0.144)	(0.145)	(0.241)	(0.251)	(0.161)	(0.163)	(0.221)	(0.233)
luni	0.020	0.042**	0.025	0.0265	0.051*	0.051*	-0.008	-0.003	-0.021	0.001
	(0.018)	(0.020)	(0.020)	(0.0202)	(0.027)	(0.028)	(0.031)	(0.032)	(0.036)	(0.039)
Isize	0.389***	0.392***	0.369***	0.342***	0.161**	0.165**	0.311***	0.261***	0.344***	0.315***
	(0.027)	(0.028)	(0.047)	(0.0499)	(0.063)	(0.066)	(0.048)	(0.050)	(0.067)	(0.071)
fo	0.254**	0.212*	Omitted		0.891**	0.920**	0.752***	0.746***	0.300	0.300
	(0.120)	(0.123)			(0.390)	(0.400)	(0.181)	(0.185)	(0.230)	(0.237)
folicences	0.680***	0.713***	0.077	0.0163	-0.325	-0.376	0.145	0.215	0.117	0.209
	(0.126)	(0.130)	(0.116)	(0.118)	(0.322)	(0.327)	(0.245)	(0.252)	(0.217)	(0.231)
share_gov	-0.009*	-0.009*	Omitted		Omitted	Omitted	-0.003	-0.002	0.043	0.053
	(0.005)	(0.005)					(0.009)	(0.009)	(0.070)	(0.069)
corruption	0.043*	0.043*	0.078*	0.0490	0.050	0.063	-0.010	0.001	-0.015	0.028
	(0.025)	(0.026)	(0.041)	(0.0428)	(0.113)	(0.119)	(0.042)	(0.042)	(0.052)	(0.057)
Constant	-4.335***	-4.697***	-1.708***	-2.095***	-3.704***	-3.698***	-0.068	-0.902	-0.636	-1.501*
	(0.333)	(0.353)	(0.351)	(0.453)	(1.222)	(1.285)	(0.576)	(0.638)	(0.755)	(0.808)
Sectoral effects	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Observations	2,177	2,177	719	719	410	410	576	576	319	319
Log likelihood	-805.1	-770.3	-425.6	-413.0	-172.2	-164.7	-330.4	-318.1	-167.5	-151.7
Pseudo R²	0.232	0.266	0.142	0.167	0.300	0.331	0.172	0.203	0.113	0.197

Tab. A

Number of observations (firms) in the BEEPS V database

Country	No. of observations
Albania	360
Armenia	360
Azerbaijan	390
Belarus	360
Bosnia-Herzegovina	360
Bulgaria	293
Croatia	360
Czech Republic	254
Djibouti	266
Egypt	2,897
Estonia	273
FYR Macedonia	360
Georgia	360
Hungary	310
Israel	483
Jordan	573
Kazakhstan	600
Kosovo	202
Kyrgyzstan	270
Latvia	336
Lebanon	561
Lithuania	270
Moldova	360
Mongolia	360
Montenegro	150
Morocco	407
Poland	542
Romania	540
Russia	4,220
Serbia	360
Slovak Republic	268
Slovenia	270
Tajikistan	359
Tunisia	592
Turkey	1,344
Ukraine	1,002
Uzbekistan	390
West Bank and Gaza	434
Yemen	353
Total	22,449

Tab. B

Sensitivity analysis: fractional logit estimations for aggregate groups of countries

	All countries			MENA			CEE (all)
VARIABLES	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Iprod	-0.082***	-0.083***	0.011	-0.018	-0.031**	-0.017	-0.061***	-0.041**	0.131***
	(0.009)	(0.010)	(0.018)	(0.012)	(0.013)	(0.026)	(0.014)	(0.017)	(0.039)
age	0.008***	0.007***	-0.006***	-0.003	-0.001	-0.006***	0.006*	0.005	-0.006
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.003)	(0.004)	(0.005)
R_D	0.653***	0.680***	0.479***	0.692***	0.671***	0.588***	0.743***	0.712***	0.441***
	(0.074)	(0.081)	(0.059)	(0.097)	(0.102)	(0.089)	(0.115)	(0.132)	(0.161)
luni	-0.073***	-0.070***	0.003	-0.023**	-0.037***	0.029*	-0.120***	-0.088***	0.008
	(0.009)	(0.010)	(0.010)	(0.011)	(0.012)	(0.016)	(0.015)	(0.017)	(0.023)
Isize	0.270***	0.220***	0.361***	0.152***	0.228***	0.354***	0.361***	0.255***	0.359***
	(0.020)	(0.022)	(0.018)	(0.024)	(0.026)	(0.026)	(0.032)	(0.037)	(0.045)
fo	0.922***	0.905***	0.817***	0.589***	0.561***	0.841***	1.201***	1.170***	0.980***
	(0.089)	(0.098)	(0.067)	(0.116)	(0.122)	(0.101)	(0.139)	(0.159)	(0.195)
folicences	0.401***	0.495***	0.295***	0.458***	0.625***	0.255***	0.484***	0.567***	0.610***
	(0.071)	(0.079)	(0.060)	(0.099)	(0.105)	(0.096)	(0.108)	(0.123)	(0.151)
share_gov	-0.013***	-0.011***	-0.005	-0.012*	-0.011	-0.004	-0.009**	-0.008*	-0.004
	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.006)	(0.007)	(0.006)	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.006)
corruption	0.047***	0.020	-0.023	-0.022	-0.045**	-0.038	-0.036	-0.029	0.068*
	(0.015)	(0.017)	(0.017)	(0.020)	(0.021)	(0.024)	(0.025)	(0.029)	(0.037)
Constant	-2.053***	-1.285***	18.510***	-1.612***	-1.385***	18.070***	-2.899***	-2.530***	-4.364***
	(0.134)	(0.158)	(0.575)	(0.171)	(0.194)	(0.230)	(0.214)	(0.263)	(0.664)
Sectoral effects	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Country effect	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Observations	16,192	16,192	16,192	5,482	5,482	5,482	10,274	10,274	10,274

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

*** p<0.01

* p<0.1

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

*** p<0.01

* p<0.1

*** p<0.01

* p<0.1

** p<0.05

* p<0.1

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

* p<0.1

*** p<0.01

Tab. C

Sensitivity analysis: probit estimations with additional “multi” variable for aggregate groups of countries

	All			MENA			CEE (all)

VARIABLES	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Iprod	-0.013***	0.043***	0.073***	0.046***	0.044***	0.054	-0.025***	0.041***	0.095***
	(0.004)	(0.009)	(0.019)	(0.008)	(0.014)	(0.037)	(0.006)	(0.012)	(0.020)
age	0.007***	0.002*	0.001	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.008***	0.001	0.000
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
R_D	0.597***	0.493***	0.437***	0.617***	0.485***	0.488***	0.604***	0.506***	0.410***
	(0.034)	(0.036)	(0.057)	(0.059)	(0.061)	(0.150)	(0.043)	(0.045)	(0.050)
luni	-0.028***	0.021***	0.031***	-0.006	0.023***	0.031***	-0.044***	0.018**	0.031***
	(0.005)	(0.005)	(0.006)	(0.007)	(0.008)	(0.009)	(0.006)	(0.007)	(0.009)
Isize	0.258***	0.291***	0.270***	0.314***	0.340***	0.312***	0.206***	0.260***	0.248***
	(0.009)	(0.010)	(0.025)	(0.015)	(0.016)	(0.037)	(0.013)	(0.013)	(0.025)
fo	0.586***	0.481***	0.455***	0.459***	0.487***	0.478***	0.692***	0.485***	0.441***
	(0.041)	(0.043)	(0.064)	(0.071)	(0.075)	(0.161)	(0.051)	(0.054)	(0.048)
folicences	0.321***	0.254***	0.237***	0.419***	0.236***	0.234	0.297***	0.260***	0.233***
	(0.033)	(0.035)	(0.059)	(0.060)	(0.064)	(0.157)	(0.042)	(0.044)	(0.049)
multi	0.001***	0.001	0.001	0.003***	0.004***	0.004***	0.002***	-0.001	-0.001
	(0.0005)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
share_gov	-0.008***	-0.005***	-0.004***	-0.006*	-0.005	-0.004	-0.005***	-0.004**	-0.003*
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.001)	(0.004)	(0.004)	(0.003)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)
corruption	-0.009	0.013	0.018*	-0.047***	0.016	0.012	-0.002	0.015	0.026**
	(0.008)	(0.009)	(0.009)	(0.012)	(0.015)	(0.013)	(0.011)	(0.012)	(0.013)
Constant	-1.592***	-2.317***	-2.543***	-2.218***	-2.536***	-2.526***	-1.360***	-2.524***	-2.612***
	(0.067)	(0.137)	(0.272)	(0.109)	(0.190)	(0.561)	(0.089)	(0.208)	(0.227)
Country effects	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Sectoral effects	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Observations	15,741	15,741	15,741	5,373	5,373	5,373	10,001	10,001	10,001
Log likelihood	-7682	-6928	-6580	-2876	-2633	-2565	-4523	-4146	-3851
Pseudo R²	0.126	0.212	0.252	0.153	0.224	0.244	0.115	0.188	0.246

Robust standard errors in parentheses

*** p<0.01

* p<0.1

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

*** p<0.01

* p<0.1

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

* p<0.1

*** p<0.01

** p<0.05

*** p<0.01

Tab. D

Correlation table for variables used in the empirical study for the whole sample of 22,449 observations

	age	R_D	luni	lsize	fo	folice~s	share_~v corrup~n
age	1.000
R_D	0.066	1.000
Iuni	-0.062	0.062	1.000
Isize	0.258	0.185	0.156	1.000
fo	0.006	0.082	0.047	0.180	1.000
folicences	0.021	0.150	0.046	0.164	0.128	1.000
share_gov	0.089	0.007	0.019	0.114	0.018	0.006	1.000
corruption	0.069	0.054	0.033	0.019	-0.001	-0.006	-0.048 1.000

[i] Source: BEEPS data set.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ceej-2017-0009 | Journal eISSN: 2543-6821 | Journal ISSN: 2544-9001

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Language: English

Page range: 4 - 22

Published on: Mar 21, 2018

Published by: Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

export performance,

MENA,

CEE,

probit

JEL:

F12,

F14,

D22

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Political economics,

Economic theory, systems and structures,

Microeconomics,

Macroeconomics,

Economic policy

© 2018 Andrzej Cieślik, Jan Jakub Michałek, Alfred Tovias, published by Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 2 (2017): Issue 49 (December 2017)